Every blogger and his dog has made the same comparuison as as I did in the previous post, that of the US and the fictional Gilead of Atwood’s novel ( see previous post). So much so that it has become a trope of the left blogosphere.
But. whenever I think it’s an overwrought, overused comparison, I get pointed (thanks to TBogg) to something like this, which shows that no dystopian novelist can be accused of hyperbole given the current insanity that is the United States.
[…]
But the twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, continue to defy the law, the authorities and dissidents say: under the direction of leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, women are still being removed from their husbands and assigned to other men, and girls under 18 are ordered to become brides of older men on a day’s notice, all despite the presence of full-time outside law enforcement.
DeLoy Bateman, a high school science teacher here who left the church several years ago, says his daughter’s marriage was recently broken up by church leaders. She was ordered to become the bride of her father-in-law, a man twice her age, Mr. Bateman says.
“This just makes me want to cry,” said Mr. Bateman, a lifelong resident of Colorado City. “They tore up this marriage and ordered her to have sex with this older man. I’ve lost my daughter and her children to this church. I have to stand outside on the sidewalk and beg if I want to see my grandchildren.”
Other residents and investigators tell similar stories about the church, which continues operating under the direction of its absolute leader, Warren Jeffs, in spite of his being one of the country’s most-wanted fugitives, indicted on sexual abuse charges along with eight of his chief followers.
“It’s just like the mob,” said Gary Engels, a former police detective who has been retained by county officials to investigate child abuse accusations here. “The church is able to keep iron-fisted control even though the top leaders are fugitives.”
The police are complicit: most are church members and 3 have been prosecuted.
This is what the Dominionists want, no separation of church and state. It’s they who have their grip on Bush’s nuts, and now they’re squeezing, hard, hence the nomination of Judge Alito.
Compare and contrast the Islamic and Christian theocratic views on women:
“The word “hijab” comes from the Arabic word “hajaba” meaning to hide from view or conceal. In the present time, the context of hijab is the modest covering of a Muslim woman. The question now is what is the extent of the covering? The Qur’an says:
“Say to the believing man that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands…” (Qur’an 24:30-31)
These verses from the Qur’an contain two main injunctions:
A woman should not show her beauty or adornments except what appears by uncontrolled factors such as the wind blowing her clothes, and
the head covers should be drawn so as to cover the hair, the neck and the bosom.”
New Testament Teaching for Women
The New Testament makes several specific statements pertaining to women’s dress in the epistles of Paul and Peter.
“I will that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works” (1 Timothy 2:8-10).
“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands” (I Peter 3:1-5).
Paul admonished women to dress according to certain standards and listed them in this order: modesty, inexpensive and nonornamental attire, and clothing that becomes godliness. To be modest means to be decent and respectful. The apostolic Christian woman seeks to emulate all the fine virtues of Christian womanhood, so she carefully and prayerfully selects her attire in order not to unduly expose her body to the stares of the public. She is not so old-fashioned as to look like a monstrosity, but she is deliberately methodical in choosing clothing that will dignify her womanhood without provoking the stares of the opposite sex.”
So tell me How are these people in Utah any different from Hizb-ut-Tahir, who want to establish a Caliphate, exactly? Both are cults, both are in favour of the subjugation of women according to their scripture and both are evangelical.
But the point of my post, which relates directly to the two pictures of children at the top. The girl on the left is American from a Christian family: on the right Moslem and French. Both appear veiled and for substantially the same scriptural reasons.
Fine, if you’re an adult. Believe what you want, wear want you want, worship whatever in your own way. Tolerance is the watchword, no matter how loony the beleif. But these girls have no choice. I can respect the choice of hijab for an adult woman; many say it takes the whole sexual tension out if the equation, and I can see how it would be a relief to be taken at your real value.
It’s not true though. Even if you cover up your secondary sexual characteristics you can’t escape surface judgements, it’s just the value system that you’re judged upon is different. Not how revealing youer clothing is, but how modest it is. It’s just religious objectification rather than sexual, keeping women occupied with their appearance so as not to have any energy to actually engage politically.
We may think we have succesfully fought off theocracy so far, but there’s a generation of girls coming up who have been brought up this way and have had no choice about it. Perhaps they’lll be the next generation of true believers, in which case I worry for the future and the coming religious wars. Or maybe, when they hit adolescence and realise just how badly they were conned, there’ll be a youth rebellion the likes of which we never anticipated. I’m hoping for the latter.
For those who think it’ll never happen here and the government will step in, think again:
The Arizona attorney general, Terry Goddard, whose own office is already active here, has asked the Justice Department to investigate the local police, saying they “seem to be aiding and abetting” criminal behavior by discouraging witnesses in sexual abuse cases from testifying; a third of the force has been decertified by Utah and Arizona for criminal conduct.
In a recent letter to the United States attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, Mr. Goddard wrote, “I believe that the officers of the Colorado City Police Department have engaged in a pattern of conduct that deprives individuals of their constitutional and civil rights.”
The Justice Department has not decided whether to intervene.
